Ms. Deb, as her students
affectionately call her, is the CEO & Founder of Creative Writing
Institute, and the former A-1 Writing Academy (now defunct).

"The A-1 Academy was a pilot program built
within the virtual walls of a large writer's group," said
Deborah. "In the first year we drew 600 students, but I wanted
to reach the public. In another year Creative Writing Institute was
created. It is a high-quality, low cost writing school with full-time
mentors and small classes. Even distressed students and seniors can
afford our prices."

Stories may differ in message, content
and characters, but each one is required to have these 16 different
elements By the time you finish this article, you will be well
equipped with a checklist that will be worth keeping – albeit, not
necessarily written in the proper order

Stories may differ in message, content
and characters, but each one is required to have these 16 different
elements. By the time you finish this article, you will be well
equipped with a checklist that will be worth keeping – albeit, not
necessarily written in the proper order.

·Your story
must have a theme. It is the thread that runs seamlessly from
beginning to end telling what the general story is about.

·It
must also have a plot, which is usually encased in the central
climax, or possibly in a series of events.

·All
stories have an arc. This is the gradual increase of momentum and
interest that builds at the beginning, reaches a fever pitch in the
middle, and declines into resolutions of story conflicts at the end.

·Some stories move fast and some move slow, but all of
them move at some rate of speed – usually a mixture of fast and
slow. This is called pacing.

·Whether you do it
mentally or by proper analysis, there is always some form of
outlining that goes into storytelling.

·And all
stories have resolutions at the end, which sum up all of the
questions that have been raised during the story.

·Every
story must begin with a good hook in the first paragraph, or you
won't have a reader to worry about entertaining.

·All
stories are told from a point of view; either first person, second
person, third person limited or third person omniscient. Right now,
editors are mostly buying third person limited.

·Every
story has to do with the characters, their problems, and how they
resolve their problems.

·Stories also have that little
thing where people talk to one another – dialog. The trick is to
write dialog that actually sounds natural. Become a good eavesdropper
and you write excellent dialog.

·Every story has
characters, and each character comes with their own bag and baggage
of physical descriptions, emotional hoopla, and psychological
concoctions.

·It would be a challenge to write a story
without some degree of research. Sometimes it is only defining how
insane a person can be, how irate parents can be, or how
irresponsible children can be – but it is research, nonetheless.

·There is always a timeline in every story. While some
authors may dwell on the same scene for a whole chapter, others will
skip years in a single sentence.

·All stories call for
settings – and if you're really good at writing, but if you are
really good at writing, you can call them imagery.

·And
every story has verbiage – like it or not. Out of every 2,500
words, you can cut 300-500 words.

·Not all stories
have show, don't tell, but they absolutely should. If I told you what
show, don't tell is, I would only be telling and not showing, and
that is against the rules. Therefore, it will have to wait for
another article.

If you have included all of these things in
your story, it may not be good, but it will certainly be complete.